Star Wars - Jada Bariss: Chapter 3
Star Wars - Jada Bariss: Chapter 3, also known as '''The Old Temple, '''is a comic-based series of events taking place during the Clone Wars. It follows the adventures of Jada Bariss. It will consist of 3 issues and start production in December 2019. Issues The Old Temple #1 A small flotilla of an Arquitens-class Light Assault Cruiser and a few Acclamator-class Assault Ships arrived above Espar as on its bridge, Jada Bariss and Tialla Ahksa were standing together with the captain leading the flotilla, Captain Terga, who informs them that the Lord Exalt of Espar is reaching out. As Jada and Tialla present themselves, the Lord Exalt tells them to cut to the chase, they are here with supplies that the planet needs, but the landing grounds are under heavy fire currently. His political opponent Fenrec Maars is trying to drive him off the planet. Tialla tells the Lord Exalt they are not here to intervene in the local conflict, but the Lord Exalt claims they were the moment the Republic agreed to send them aid. While Captain Terga orders the ships to hold above orbit and not land troops, Jada, Tialla and Rush along with a small squad of Clone Troopers decide to go down there and see if they can broker a peace between the two warring Lords. As they arrive on the planet, Tialla warns Jada not to get involved in inner-planet politics and Jada says she has an idea. As they disembark from their troop transports, they are met by the Lord Exalt who is under local armed guard and he pursuades them to accompany him to the safety zone on Espar. While Jada insists they are here to deliver medical supplies to Espar, Tialla doesn't trust it and she convinces Jada to go along with her plan. While Clones unload the supplies, Tialla uses her species' natural ability to shapeshift into one of the helpers of the Lord Exalt. In the meantime Jada travels with the Lord Exalt to the safety zone south of the large city they landed in. As they travel there, Jada and Tialla pretend not to interact, but Rush on Jada's command stays close with Tialla. When they do arrive in the safety zone, the Lord Exalt tells Jada and the Clones to be on guard, they don't know what they can expect here. Without warning they are surrounded by armored warriors and Jada narrows her eyes as the Clones raise their weapons as Fenrec Maars appears, telling the Lord Exalt, he has no business on the sacred lands of the Seventh Sentum God Avalahn. The Lord Exalt calls it rubbish and demands that Maars is to leave these lands or they won't be recieving their share of the supplies that the Republic would get. This puts Jada and Rush on alert and while they separate themselves from the Lord Exalt and Tialla in disguise, Jada tells Rush she is gonna see if she can get to the camp of Maars and speak to him, meanwhile Rush must protect Tialla and whatever happens not be forced into battle. As Jada makes her way into the grounds of the Seventh Sentum, Rush and his Troopers return to the side of the Lord Exalt who demands that unless Maars and his people give up their lands, the Clones must act and Rush refuses. Rush says the Clone force does not have their orders here and as far as they are aware the Lord Exalt has no planetery authority here. The Lord Exalt is angry and storms out. Rush signals to Tialla to follow the Lord Exalt. Jada makes her way to the camp of Maars and reveals herself and learns that there is another reason why Maars and his people refuse to give up the lands, their Temple of Avalahn is also on top of a huge Doaxium mine. As the Lord Exalt and his men (including Tialla in disguise) work apart from the Clone forces, Tialla learns that the Lord Exalt cares nothing for the lands and is willing to betray Maars to the Separatists the moment he gets his hands on the Doaxium. He then contacts Count Dooku requesting formal aide of the Separatists. The Old Temple #2 With the Lord Exalt of Espar having formally requested help from the Separatists, the way for the forces of Count Dooku is open and this means Tialla Ahksa had to find a way to alert both Jada Bariss and the Galactic Republic. Jada in the meantime managed to get into the camp of Fenrec Maars and manages to calm the side down, while requested to turn her lightsaber over to them while she was with them anyway. Fenrec leads her to the mine, while Jada attempts to convince him that while the Clones are here, they will act at the interest of the Lord Exalt, who is acknowledged by the Senate as the official contact of Espar. They need to convince her that they are the people who are right in order to allow her to convince the Republic to denounce the Lord Exalt. Fenrec asks her if she heard of the legend of the deity Avalahn and Jada apologizes that she does not. As Fenrec leads her into the temple, Jada is astonished by the sight of what she sees inside the Temple. Large statues of armored warriors holding long lances in the shapes of the lightsaber. Impressed, Jada asks Fenrec what they are and Fenrec relies to her they are ancient travelers from the planet Zeffo. they are what gave them the faith in the Force and they were the ones who discovered the Doaxium here. Avalahn was the first of the Zeffo species that made itself known, quite possibly being the first of the Order of the Seventh Sentum. In the meantime in the camp of the Lord Exalt, explosions are heard and the Clone Troopers come to the aide of the Lord Exalt, with Rush helping up and out Tialla of the camp, who changes back. They find out that the camp was attacked by warriors dressed up in the colors and armor of the tribe supporting Fenrec. Rush and Tialla discover that they have nothing to do with Fenrec and are instead part of the Exalt's tribe. The Lord Exalt demands that the Clones come into action against the tribe of Fenrec, but Tialla refuses. The Lord Exalt attempts to go over her head by appealing to Rush directly that the Republic wouldn't want to lose them. He continues to reach to Coruscant, while Rush relies to Tialla that he won't be able to refuse direct orders from Coruscant if they come. Tialla relies a message to Jada about what happened, but Jada is unable to recieve it. As the Lord Exalt is adressed by Chancellor Palpatine who tells him he won't make any promises, but he'll speak with the Jedi. The Lord Exalt threatens to go to the Separatists instead and this angers Palpatine. He warns the Lord Exalt not to threaten the Republic. At that point three Lucrehulk-class Battleships arrive above the planet and launch their forces. The Lord Exalt uses this as an excuse that Fenrec must have called for help from the Separatists to attack him, the rightfull authority. Now with Yoda at his side, Palpatine advises Tialla to only undertake defensive actions against the Separatist forces but not go on the offensive. As Battle Droids land, this is also noticed by the tribe of Fenrec, who seem surprised, however due to the alleged alliance between the Separatists and Fenrec, they are ordered to treat the appearance as an attack and open fire to kill the tribesmen. This angers Fenrec and he orders his men to start up their artillery and accuses Jada of turning against them. As he hurries out of the Temple, he traps Jada inside with no way out. Right after she becomes trapped, mechanisms inside the Temple activate, which result in the activation of various Tomb Guardians, who knock her out instantly. Jada and Rush attempt to call their troops to cease fire, but due to the machinations of the Lord Exalt, he gets shot and orders the Republic to defend him. As this happens, aides begins to doubt his sincerity and actions as the Separatist commander, a droid named CH-A0S, of the three battleships disembarks, ordering his troops to take the mines, but leave none alive, including the Lord Exalt and his tribe. The Old Temple #3 Series Book 1 1 - 2 - 3